By Helen

inspiration from the knitting and stitching show, Harrogate…

 

Yesterday me and two friends took ourselves to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Harrogate: we had the most fabulous day, I just had to share some of it with you.  Not only were there lots and lots of stalls full of goodies to buy (and we did buy) there were also amazing displays, of all types of textiles, to inspire. 

The first thing that I was drawn to was, of course, crochet art works by the very very talented Samantha Claire…

I loved her mug warmers, something I must try and crochet for myself…

I loved the purple and the flowers on this fabulous quilt…

The colours were fantastic, not to mention the work which must have gone into the quilt.  It was all, yes all, hand stitched…

Downstairs, we came across these wonderful displays.  All knitted.  All inspired by children’s stories…

These projects were commissioned by Customs House, and the North East Maritime Trust, a group of knitters and stitchers from the North East of England. 

One of the stars of the show, had to be the village…

…this had been knitted and stitched by very creative people all over the country, as part of a completion, I thought that they were all brilliants and was very glad I didn’t have to choose a winner!  Although I did love the allotments...

Of course, we didn’t just look at the displays, we shopped.  Shopped and shopped and shopped.  I’ll show you a few of my purchases in a few posts time…

crochet flowers…

You’ve probably realised that I love to crochet flowers.  I haven’t been able to crochet flowers for the last few weeks.  My yarn stash was packed away ahead of the building work.  I miss popping up stairs to grab a ball of yarn on a crochet wimp.  While we were packing the house away, I was able to slide my hand into the draw: and with the help of a torch pull something out.  I can’t imagine what state those draws will be in!  For the last few weeks, nothing, no access.  To get my crochet flower fix, I have spent some happy time browsing my crochet book collection: and I thought that I would share one of my favourite with you.  This book is as good as Lesley Stanfield's; but in a very different way.  The book that I want to tell you about is Crochet Flowers by the incredibly talented Nicky Epstein….

The book is just beautiful!  Full of gorgeous photographs of crochet flowers; in some of the most amazing yarn you have ever seen.  Each flower has the crochet pattern, so you can easily crochet the flowers for yourself.  And most (if not all) of the flowers have crochet charts; brilliant for those of us who prefer to look at pictures rather than read words!  One note of caution; if you do read and follow the crochet patterns, they are written in American; while translation is no big issue – it is worth remembering before you start!

The book is a true source of inspiration, even if you don’t follow the patterns and prefer to crochet things up as you go along (as I do) I would recommend that this book is placed on your bookshelf.  Go on treat yourself…

 Ps – building work should finish today or tomorrow.  Very excited to start decorating, can’t wait to share it all with you…

a really great yarn…

I love how the world so often provides us with things which perfectly complement each-other: strawberries and cream, coffee and cake, and stilton and port.  I also love how the world provides us with opposites; day and night, light and dark, hot and cold.  So, it stands to reason after my resent purchase of the world’s worst yarn, I would come across the world’s best yarn.  Okay, the yarn in question might not be the very best in the world; but in my world it is up-there, right and the top.  The yarn crochets the cutest little flower brooches…

What is the yarn?  I here you ask.  It is a baby alpaca, merino mix, which the very talented Debbie Bliss has combined together to bring us Paloma.  It is fantastic!  The yarn has already been worked together once, and looks almost plaited…

Do you see what I mean?  If you look closely at the green and purple, can you see how the colour isn’t solid?  It is a blend of different colours and shades; this just makes the yarn even better. The yarn isn’t new to me, I actually first came across it at Harrogate, last year.  I crocheted it into a Christmas tree.  Then in the true tradition of yarn, it was put away in my stash draw and forgotten about.  I stumbled across it a few weeks ago, and it screamed crochet me into a flower.  So that is what I did!  I crocheted with a small hook (the recommended is 10mm) and love the result which looks almost felted.  Perhaps the best thing about the yarn is the range of colour which is available….

Go on treat yourself, to some Debbie Bliss Paloma, you won’t be disappointed

fabric flowers...

Do you remember that I mentioned, when I visited Grace and Jacob a few weeks ago, that I booked on a course to make fabric flowers?  Well that course was last Sunday.  It was brilliant!  No other word to describe just brilliant. Our tutor the very talented Bryony had made these to inspire us…

Then it was our turn.  The day started with a very difficult choice, of choosing three (yes just three) different fabrics to make our flowers out of.  The choice…

...was tricky, so many colours, so many patterns.  In the end I decided on my three…

All of the flowers we made started in the same way: by cutting out circles of fabric.  The circles were the folded in different ways and stitched together to make the petals of the flowers.  Then finished off with a fabric covered button. 

So, these circles…

Became this…

These circles…

Became this…

And these circles ….

Became this…

I am so, so, sooooooooo proud of what I made! Everyone on the course was so talented, are you ready for a group ta-dah moment?  Here goes…

The day was made even better when Aleksandra arrived with her Cake Pops…

They were almost too pretty to eat.  I did say almost, and they tasted just as good as they looked!

It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday: surrounded by fabric, making flowers, meeting other talented crafters.  Now for the real challenge making more lovely fabric flowers, solo: without the safety- net of Bryony!  I’ll let you know how I get on.

 A massive thank you, thank YOU, THANK YOU to Bryony and Fiona: for starting my love affair with fabric flowers. 

 Sorry Si – that does mean fabric in the house, as well as yarn!

sweet treat…

York is full of wonderful tea-shop; you are literally spoilt for choice.  If you only have time to visit one: then you would have to go to Bettys.  I can spend ages stood in front of Bettys' shop window, with their mouth-watering display of cakes, biscuits, breads and teas.  Yesterday as I was walking passed the window I spotted these…

Aren’t they the most adorable cakes you have ever seen?  They reminded me of the bees I crocheted last year, when I opened my back-yard.  The bee cakes had to be (sorry) Friday night’s sweet treat.  And, oh boy, they were good.  Chocolate heaven.  Inside the gorgeous chocolate decoration was a chocolate ganache, sat on a layer of chocolate cake.  Chocolate heaven! 

They did remind me that I hadn’t baked for a long time.  So that is how I am spending today: crocheting and baking.  Enjoy your weekend, and if you can make it to Bettys…

bad, bad yarn…

Okay this post comes with a health warning, about bad yarn.  I probably only have myself to blame.  I don’t follow crochet patterns very well: choosing to see them more as guidelines or sources of inspiration rather than something which must be crocheted to the letter.  I don’t read about which yarns are best for this, and which yarns are best for that.  I choose my yarn by its colour, by its texture and by how I think it will looked crocheted.  Sometimes I am caught out.  This was one of those occasions!  I bought this…

 

Loved the colour.  Loved the texture.  Thought wow, that would make great flowers.  How wrong was I?  I sat in the garden, out in the sunshine, cup of tea in hand, Monty (next- doors cat) at my feet,  ready for a happy afternoon of crocheting.  Things didn’t turn out that way.  Oh no.  This is simply some of the worst yarn I have ever crocheted.  Anything more than a double crochet is impossible. Don’t even think about taking your crochet back – it simple won’t happen.  After an hour of frustrating crochet, I had produced a tangle…

 

Okay they are flower shaped tangles. But they are still more tangle than flower and I am just not happy with them.  The yarn had/has so much potential…

If anyone has any thoughts or ideas about how to use this yarn, please, let me know.  Otherwise this is one yarn that will make its way to the charity shop.  One person’s trash…

 NB – the guilt yarn is Persia by Sirdar – you have been warned!

cooking up a feast…

Si and I love having friends over and cooking for them; and that is exactly what we did a couple of weeks ago.  It was the perfect opportunity to cook something from my new cookbook.  Rachel Khoo’s The Little Paris Kitchen…

Ever since watching The Little Paris Kitchen I had been hooked, so when the cookbook came out, I knew that it was destined for my bookshelf.  After spending time reading the recipes and looking at the beautiful photographs: I decided what to cook. 

The meal was to start with galette aux pommes de terre et poires avec Roquefort (potato and pear galette with Roquefort.   I have to say my galette looked NOTHING  like Rachel’s…

But then I have not been trained at the Cordon Bleu cookery school.  Despite their appearance they tasted fantastic, even if I do say so myself!  Next I made boulettes de viande avec une sauce piquante et des pates d’Alsace (meatballs in spicy sauce with Alsatian pasta), only I substituted the Alsatian pasta for good old penne.   This did look like Rachel’s…

The only hick-up with this, was I felt like I was eating gravy with pasta.  Nevertheless it tasted good!  Next came dessert, which Si offered to make.  Si carried on the Rachel Khoo theme choosing to make a dark chocolate and raspberry pudding…

This was good, very VERY good!  Chocolate and raspberry loveliness, what more can you ask for?

All of the recipes were very easy to follow and we keep trying out different things from the cookbook and from Rachel’s amazing blog.  I would recommend that you try some out and create your own Little Paris kitchen in your own little home,…

Enjoy x

bakeation…

I think that I might have just bought the best baking book EVER!  Crochet will have to play second-fiddle to baking for a while, while I bake my way through the book.  The book in questions is the  Hairy Bikers' Big Book of Baking…

It’s the book which accompanies their BBC Two programme Bakeation.  The book, rather like the TV programme, is just brilliant, rather like everything the boys do.  I am bit of a fan. 

The book is arranged by countries, and each country has a selection of recipes.  So far, I think that I have baked my way around Norway, with a few pit-stops in Italy, Germany, Belgium and Hungary.

I think my favourite recipe (so far) is the Norwegian Cardamom and Lemon Stamped Cookies.  I have to confess I was a newbie to cardamom, I think that I might have tasted it in other recipes, but never as the main event.  I am a convert.  I can’t describe the favour, but would encourage you to go out and try it.

I was really pleased with how my cookies turned out…

Only one complaint about my cookies: mine aren’t stamped.  By this I mean, that the Bikers had used these gorgeous little presses to stamp pretty pictures of leaves and flowers on their cookies.  Mine were left unstamped.  This was not for want of trying.  I looked EVRYWHERE in York for cookie stamps but nowhere sold them, not even trusty Lakeland (the shop I thought sold everything you don’t know you need).  I found some on the internet, but they had to be shipped from Canada, this seemed a little extreme and I didn’t like the decoration that much to order them.  So my cookies remained undecorated.  Needless to say the lack of decoration didn’t affect the flavour, they were delicious! 

Go treat yourself, buy the book and bake something amazing.

read all about it, read all about it...

I have a confession to make.  I am a magazine junky.  There I admitted it.  I am sure that I am not alone in this addiction.  To try and curb my habit: I limit my visit to WH Smiths to once-a-month, and go armed with one ten-pound note.  April’s visit was such a success, I can’t tell you how pleased I am with my purchases.   Well, that is not strictly true, as I am about to tell you.  I came away from the shop with two wonderful magazines…

I was a stranger to Mollie Makes , and was only tempted to buy this issue because of the free (yes free) crochet gift on the front cover.  The magazine is just b-r-i-l-L-I-A-N-T.  Not only have the lovely Mollie Makes’ team provided the pattern, hook, brooch back and yarn to make a delightful flower brooch, the rest of the magazine is just fabulous.  The magazine doesn’t limit itself to one craft so there are an array of treats waiting for you within it’s cover.  There are patterns, reviews, interviews and inspirational photographs.  The whole magazine is a delight.  I can’t wait for next months (which is out next week) where the free (yes free) gift is a set of vintage buttons.

One of my monthly stables is Inside Crochet.  I buy the magazine out of habit and because it is the only UK crochet magazine that the shop sells.  The magazine usually has two or three patterns that I can’t wait to follow.  This month…

...is different.  I want to crochet ALL OF THEM.  I can’t remember the last time Inside Crochet was this good.  Although I will spend a happy afternoon checking out my back issues just to make sure.  I don’t know which of the patterns to start with.  Should it be Lynne Rowe's Skinny Scarf?  Or perhaps Christine Harvey's cheerful spring flower pots?  Or maybe Helda Panagary's  funky hibiscus coasters?  If I am feeling ambitious Sian Brown's beautiful lace trim top? 

There are so many wonderful, amazing, fabulous things out there, thank goodness for the long weekend.  Here’s to spending time curled up on the sofa flicking though magazines and crocheting…

crochet stitches...

I suspect very many of you are like me: and have shelves and shelves full of books.  It has been my thought to gradually, over time, to blog reviews of each of them (well the crochet ones: other wise reviewing ALL of them would be a whole new blog).  So far in the year (yes it really has been almost a year) of blogging I have reviewed a grand total of one book that is devoted just to crochet.

So, here is number two...

This is one of my favourite, fall back books.  When you are reading a pattern, or wanting to crochet something beautiful, this is the book that takes you back to basics and offers you an array of stitches to chose from.  It has an amazing illustrated stitch index, making it really reader friendly.  Each stitch is then explained in detail and charted.  My only negative here is that some of the charts are printed in yellow.  Yellow on white printing, is something which I struggle with. 

On one of those mad days I did come up with the idea to crochet my way through the book.  Then after mastering each of the 200 stitches (including the section on Tunisian crochet) I could call myself a real-life, proper, grown-up crocheter.  Need-less-to-say this is one of those things that I haven't yet got around to doing!

This book should be on all crocheters' book shelves, as it is brilliant as a book for beginners and equally good for those with more knowledge. 

Go on treat yourself Now...